There are as many reasons for running as there are days in the year, years in my life. But mostly I run because I am an animal and a child, an artist and a saint. So, too, are you. Find your own play, your own self-renewing compulsion, and you will become the person you are meant to be.

Life is like music; it must be composed by ear, feeling, and instinct, not by rule.

6 comments:

Al, you know me well. For the past 7+ months I've run primarily in Luna's and Nike XC's.

As between Luna and Nike XC, it depends on where I'm running and what type of running. The Luna is excellent for a barefoot-like experience and I think the Nike XC is the best all around running shoe on the market when you consider price (under $50), versatility (good on soft and hard surfaces), flexibility (for a racing shoe), weight (under 6 oz.), minimal heel differential (under 3mm), etc.

Harry, I recall reading sometime ago that you found that you were faster in the XC's than in the Luna's. As soon as I read it, I knew that your glory days of running exclusively in the Luna's was over.

The XC's sound like a great shoe -- I'm just concerned about the width.

Al, it's such an interesting issue. I'm not sure about speed as I finished 2nd overall in the my last 5k running in the Luna's on a very difficult hilly 5k course. There's so many factors and so much we don't know about both shod and unshod running.

For example, I'm not sure if my journey to injury free running has been more about improving my form as opposed to shod vs. unshod? Who knows. It's probably a little of both but there's silver bullet. I think the shod world over-complicates the issues and the unshod world over-simplifies the issues. My personal belief is the answer likely lies somewhere in the middle.

The XC is an excellent shoe and it may not work for folks with wide feet. I have medium width feet and I order a 1/2 size larger than my normal size and it works well. And, obviously, I'm a huge fan of the Luna which I still use a lot.

Harry, seems to me the simple lesson is that everyone is different and what works for one person may not work for another. I enjoy seeing your reviews of the various shoes you try out and in the back of my mind thinking what's the next shoe Harry is going to declare his "go-to" shoe.

As far as I'm concerned, you're enjoying your running and she exploration and that's really all that matters. You're running fast, injury-free, and having fun.